Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi sought on Thursday to reassure the military after a state-owned newspaper reported corruption charges against the two army chiefs he sacked in August.

On Wednesday, the editor of Gomhuria newspaper was suspended after publishing a report saying ex-military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and chief of staff Sami Enan were barred from traveling because of a corruption probe.

Israel granted final approval on Thursday to a plan to build 800 homes near Gilo in annexed east Jerusalem, with construction tenders likely to be published within a few months, a Peace Now official said.

The move will mean the westward expansion of Gilo, a settlement neighborhood located on the southern flanks of east Jerusalem, which lies very close to the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

Libya's top official headed for Bani Walid on Thursday to try to persuade its tribal and military leaders to allow a peaceful army takeover, a day after clashes in the former rebel bastion killed 11 people.

Ex-rebel combatants linked to the army, including many from the rival city of Misrata, attacked the oasis town on Wednesday in fighting that left at least 11 dead and dozens wounded, according to sources in both camps.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Thursday rejected reported allegations from Western intelligence sources that it plans to damage an oil tanker in the Gulf to create an environmental disaster.

Deputy commander General Hossein Salami said the force "does not need such scenarios to accomplish its mission and carries out its work based on realities," as quoted by Fars news agency.

Iraq on Thursday refused to allow more than 120 Turkish buses to cross into Saudi Arabia, apparently loaded with Mecca pilgrims, because the passengers did not have visas issued by Baghdad, officials said.

"The government has decided to turn back 128 Turkish buses because they entered (Iraq) without following the procedures in force," Ali al-Moussawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told Agence France Presse.

A shell fired accidentally at an army weapons depot in the Yemeni capital killed two people and wounded seven others on Thursday, a security official told Agence France Presse.

"Initial information indicates that a shell was (accidentally) fired at the weapons depot" from a nearby military facility where troops "were training," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Hundreds of Hamas fighters kicked off celebrations in Gaza on Thursday to mark one year since Israel began freeing 1,027 prisoners in exchange for the release of one soldier.

In the first event of a day of celebrations, hundreds of armed and masked fighters from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, marched through the city in a big show of force, an AFP correspondent said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged a ceasefire in Syria and called for internal dialogue to resolve the crisis, but rejects a Turkish proposal to replace President Bashar Assad, Kuwait's press reported Thursday.

"The continuity of the fighting and the killing of innocent and unarmed Syrian citizens ... is unacceptable. A ceasefire must be achieved and then a dialogue started," said Ahmadinejad, cited by the daily Al-Anbaa newspaper.

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is trying to secure a truce in Syria for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, will arrive in Damascus on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said.

"Brahimi will meet with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Saturday morning," ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi told AFP.

A drone strike near the southern Yemeni city of Jaar killed at least seven Al-Qaida suspects at dawn on Thursday, an official in the restive region told AFP.

"A drone, likely American, fired several rockets at a group of Al-Qaida members northwest of Jaar killing all of them," said the official, adding seven bodies had so far been recovered.